Today is Rally Sunday, the day we begin the Sunday School year after the summer break. I’ve never really known why we call it Rally Sunday really, so I Googled rally and found that it comes from the French word rallier, from re, meaning again, and allier, meaning to ally. That’s what we’re doing today, re-allying, re-assembling after a summer break. Of course, we haven’t taken a summer break from worship, just from Sunday School.
Billy’s father brought his boss home for dinner one day. The boss was everything a boss shouldn’t be: blustery, boastful, never able to listen because he’s always talking. Billy just stared at him most of the evening, not saying a word. At last the boss asked Billy: “Son, why are you looking at me like that?”
The boy spoke up: “My daddy says you’re a self-made man. Is that true?”
“Yes,” beamed the boss proudly, as he patted his stomach.
“Well,” asked Billy innocently, “if you made yourself, why did you make yourself like that?”
Out of the mouths of babes… Pride can be very unattractive. It also distorts reality, for it’s based on a lie. For example, there’s no such thing as a self-made person. We’re all given certain gifts and abilities by God, and all along the way we are beneficiaries of the efforts and abilities of others.
Pride manifests itself in many different ways, not the least of which is judgmentalism, for in our pride we set ourselves up as the standard, which is a very dangerous thing to do, for remember, pride is based on a lie.
Diogenes came to the home of the Greek philosopher Plato one day and was disgusted to find rich and exquisite carpets on Plato’s floor. To show his contempt he stamped and wiped his feet upon them, saying, “Thus do I trample upon the pride of Plato.”
“With greater pride,” observed Plato. Pride can be a very unattractive thing.
The Greeks understood pride to be the tragic flaw in humanity. The Bible sees pride as the root of Original Sin, stemming from our desire to be masters of our own destiny, rather than reliant upon and obedient to God. Proverbs states that “Pride goeth before destruction,” and that “a man’s pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Ecclesiasticus says, “The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord.”
Jesus was invited to a dinner, and he used the occasion to do some teaching. He noted that people enjoyed sitting in places of honor at the dinner. He admonished them, however, to choose to sit in the lowest spots, that they might be honored by their host by being invited to come up higher. He wasn’t really that interested in dinner party seating; he used that social situation as a way to illustrate an eternal truth: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” It’s one of those truths that apply to people at every level of society, whether you’re a part time janitor at McDonald’s or the President of the United States. “He who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Being prideful comes naturally. So what’s really wrong with it? I said earlier that pride is based on a lie. That lie is that I’m in control of my life, or that it’s at least possible for me to be in control of my life, and most likely it includes my being in control of your life, too. We can control some things, but ultimately only God is in control. When we live according to the lie we are always trying to prove to ourselves and others that we’re in control, and we end up contributing to the unhappiness around us.
What’s the antidote to this condition that’s part of our fallen human nature? The antidote is to trust in God. But to do that we have to overcome our nature, which is impossible for us to do! Trust can only come when God breaks through and in his grace enables us to trust in him. And that’s a process. We’re not one day self-centered and the next day God-centered. It’s a process, whereby slowly by his grace we learn to trust, and by his grace we put ourselves more and more in a position where God can influence us. Thus, in small steps we gradually become the people God created us to be.
The Church is the organism God uses to bring that about, to communicate the saving grace of Christ. Here we receive that grace through the Sacrament, learn the value of prayer, read and meditate on holy Scripture, find support and encouragement, and receive forgiveness when we fall. The Church isn’t perfect because it’s made up of imperfect people, yet God somehow works through us to bring us back to him.
And so today we reassemble, re-ally, for Rally Sunday. Our gathering is composed of young and old, rich and poor, conservative and liberal. Doctor, retiree, judge, student, lawyer, housekeeper, teacher, office worker, business person—all acknowledge their weakness and sin and on their knees ask for forgiveness, and all gather around the same Table to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, a sign of our common need to receive the grace of God offered through the sacrifice of Christ. This gathering today and any day that we gather is an “acting out” of the humility of which our Lord speaks. And many of the same people then leave the service and go to the classroom in further acts of humility in what is taught and what is learned, and especially in what is modeled.
Rally Sunday is a great day, but really, every Sunday is Rally Sunday as we re-assemble to practice and celebrate who we are, who we are becoming, by the grace of God, and most important, whose we are.
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Rally Sunday
28 August 2016